Since the beginning of the 20th century, various attempts have been made by legal scholars to draft a Civil Code in China. However, only since the 1980s, when the ‘open-door’ policy was implemented, has Chinese Civil law become the basis for the development of a socialist market economy. Since the adoption of Chinese contract law (1999), property Law (2007) and tort Law (2009) in recent years, the basic construction of a socialist civil law system has been formulated. For the completion of a systematic civil law structure, a Civil Code has now been further advocated by society. The Draft Civil Code, prepared by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences headed by Liang Huixing, is the first Draft Civil Code since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The English translation of this code aims to provide a source for western scholars to provide some knowledge on recent developments of Chinese civil law. Also available as a Paperback edition (978-90-04-17915-8).

Currently, China is drafting its new Civil Code. Against this background, the Chinese legal community has shown a growing interest in various legal and legislative ideas from around the world. Within this context, the present book aims at providing the necessary historical and comparative legal perspectives. It concentrates on substantive private law and civil procedure, both in China and in other jurisdictions. These perspectives are of considerable importance for the present codification work. Additionally, the book is dedicated to commemorating the centennial of the first Western-influenced and civil law-oriented Civil Code of China, the Da Qing Min Lü Cao An of 1911. The following topics are addressed: property law, contract law, tort law and civil procedure. The book also contains contributions on codification experiences in Europe and on the concept of codification in general. The topics are discussed by leading Chinese and international scholars. Most of the Chinese contributors have taken part in preparing the Chinese Draft Civil Code. The book is the outcome of a conference organized by the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (RCCL), School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, in October 2010.

This contribution provides the important and timely bilingual version of the Chinese Civil Code and the Supreme People’s Court’s Judicial Interpretation of the Temporal Effect of the Civil Code. Providing translations by a diverse group of esteemed legal scholars, on Contract Law, Tort Law, Marriage, Family and Succession Law, General and Personality Provisions and Property Law, this unique resource will be important for all those with an interest in Chinese Law.

This contribution provides the important and timely bilingual version of the Chinese Civil Code and the Supreme People's Court's Judicial Interpretation on the Temporal Effect of the Civil Code, which is purported to keep the global community of lawyers interested in Chinese law informed and updated.

This book explains the urgent necessity to compile a Civil Code and calls for constitutional awareness in compiling that Civil Code, highlighting the need for it to be done in a democratic and scientific manner. It advocates “Pragmatic Methods” as a new approach to compiling a Civil Code of China and shares the author’s thoughts on the constitutionality of compiling a Civil Code, explains the object that is to be judged in terms of its constitutionality, and the constitutionality of legal interpretation, of legislative procedures and of legal application. The book also illustrates the author’s “mode of the codifying of non-basic laws” for compiling a Civil Code, and includes a detailed discussion on compiling a Civil Code to reveal how many valid laws there are China – a matter that is of vital importance to the compilation of the Civil Code.The Appendix includes statistics on the number of civil cases classified according to causes of actions, based on “Judicial Opinions of China” website, which is the first step of the author’s plan to investigate civil customs reflected in judgment documents with the help of big-data analytical methods.

The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China became effective on January 1st, 2021. It supersedes the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, the Inheritance Law of the People's Republic of China, the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China, the Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China, the Security Law of the People's Republic of China, the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, the Property Law of the People's Republic of China, the Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China, and the General Provisions of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China. As a legal team focusing on foreign-related affairs, we translated the entire code to allow interested English-speaking people and legal professionals worldwide to clearly understand the law as stated. Thank you!

This book is an timely, full and idiomatic English translation of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, which is carried out by a competent team consisting of esteemed Chinese jurists and legal linguists. The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, which is the first ever civil code of modern China and marks a milestone in China's legal history, covers all aspects of civil and business life. As the exchanges and cooperation between China, the second largest economy in the world, and the rest of the world increase rapidly, a good understanding of a law as fundamental as the Civil Code is in China will be of great help to legal scholars and other scholars interested in China, legal practitioners and business people, as well as all other people with a stake in contemporary China. With this mind, the authors of this book chose to translate the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China into English, in the hope to contribute to the exchange and cooperation between China and the rest of the world. The translation of the Civil Code in this book is full in meaning, as the translators, who are esteemed scholars who are bilingual and whose academic accomplishments cover both law and linguistics, have made a point to render the full legislative message underlying the civil code, including message that is otherwise implicit to non-Chinese speakers. The translation is genuine in style in that the translators, among whom are some of the most prominent scholars in law and legal linguistics in China, made it a point to preserve the genuine style of contemporary Chinese legislative texts and to conform to the norms of contemporary legal language in the English speaking world.--Publisher.